


The Quiet lark in a stone nest

by Darkhorse



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Convent, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-15
Updated: 2018-12-15
Packaged: 2019-09-19 15:35:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17004363
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darkhorse/pseuds/Darkhorse
Summary: Cosette in the Convent





	The Quiet lark in a stone nest

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mgrbienvenu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mgrbienvenu/gifts).



The walls were so tall, silver grey. Cosette let her eyes travel up them, all the way to the curve where they met in the roof. It was wonderful, she had never really seen anything that tall, the buildings in Paris were tall, but they went up and up to the sky. This one closed, but so high over her head. It was so different to the inn that was dim in her mind, even the rooms they had been in since Papa came. All those roves had been flat wooden ending. This one blended together one whole thing. It meant safe, somehow. The way the inn hadn't. She trotted after the lady she had been following since she left father. The lady was dressed all in white, a tall coloumn. Was she an angel? She looked a little like the angels she'd seen on the stalls at the Christmas fair, a little like the figure she dimly remembered in relation to warm arms and a soft singing.

The white lady paused, then turned the big  iron ring on a large wooden door next to her. The door shrieked slightly as it opened. She tensed, it shrieked as the kitchen door had in the inn, the inn it meant the madame may be coming.

The white coloumn turned in the doorway, revealing a face in it, a kind face, quiet, but warm, in a different way to the way Father’s was warm. A lady, who slowly reached out her hand.

“Come child.”

Slowly she moved forward. Beyond the opened arch were two rows of beds, head ends pressed against the walls on either side. At the far end a square window looked out into the garden, she could see the trees waving slightly in a breeze. The lady walked along the centre of the room until she came t one bed in the middle of the left row. She looked back towards Cosette.  Warily, Cosette remained against  the door wall.

“Come child, this is a place of sanctuary, none will be harmed here”

She walked slowly down the central passage. The beds were all plain, white sheets, steady blue blankets neatly pressed and folded back from the pillow. Each had a knot of rope on the headbord band, tied slightly differently, except the one the nun stood by.

“This will be your bed child.” She reached into her robe and pulled out a short piece of cord “You may tie your knot as the others have done. The other girls are in their lessons at the moment, you may wait here and I will send one of them to collect you for  None”

“Yes Madame”

The lady tall in white gave another small smile, walking back down the room and pulling the door shut behind her with another screech of the metal. Cosette slipped down the – side of the bed, her bed and tied the piece of cord to the headstand as she had been instructed. Then slowly, she sat herself on the edge of the bed, feeling the rough wool of the grey blanket under her fingers. It was soothing under her fingers, something more normal, less like the dreams she had lived in night after night in the inn, there everything was too perfect, snatches of boats and parks and silks and scent, two voices laughing and talking just out of sight. This, this was an embodiment of everything she could want or need, and it was here with her, under her hands. She let her eyes wander over the room. The beds were sturdy, while somewhat bare. Their number and her position in the middle acted a comfort on a fear she only dimly recognised. There were many of them, and they were within the walls, sturdy thick stone walls, more supporting than those at the inn even at the house. If madame came for her there was a great distance between the front portress,and this room ,and many others to hear her. But would they know that she was a threat, or would they just see an affable innkeeperess as all but Father had seen. A cold prickle ran over her skin, this wasn’t Montefermeil, but Paris had its shadyside, why else had they been chased those few nights

. Above the silence of the buildings and the rustle of the breeze she heard a large bell ringing out close by followed by the more distant echoes of the city. Close on the heels of the bell the door squeaked again and her eyes snapped to it. The wood block swayed open to reveal a young woman, not in the beautiful white but in a heavenly blue dress. Suddenly aware that she had not been bidden to sit on the bed she lept up ducking her head politely.

"So you're the new pupil". The voice seemed kind though very formal "Novica Innocent sent me to take you to the chapel for bones. Cosette peakedvout from her veiw of the floor as the older girl's shoes clipped towards her, meeting steady firm brown eyes as the girl crouched in front of her.

"I am Dominique "

"I am Cosette"

 

Dominique watched the younger girl as they walked down the corridor away from the youngest children's dormitories. Almost without relising it she made a quick assessment. The child still wore her worldly clothes, she would be robed after the prayers, which assited. Neither dress or bearing were that of a noble or higher bourgeos family, she might be of the merchant class, except there was a wary cowed nature to the way she held herself.

“Do you have any family Cosette?” She kept her voice low as they walked, careful not to spark an echo in the tall corridor

“My Papa will work in the gardens here with his brother, my Mama is in heaven”

Automatically Domenique crossed herself, offering up a silent prayer for the soul of the unkpwn woman. Then she said lightly “You are luckier than most of us then, for you can see your father regularly, most of us only see them on visiting days, and then only through the grate of the porteress lobby.”

Cosette turned her eyes to her and therewas a fear which touched her heart. “Are the sisters cruel?”

Dominique stopped, crouched down and put her hands on the little girls shoulders “No, they are strict and quet and somewaht stern, some are better than others, but there is no creualty here, Cosette. We must do as we are told, say our prayers, eat our meals and learn our lessons. But they are not crueal. It is not in Gods mandate to be cruel, epecially to children.

She watched Cosette take in this information, rising back to her feet “come now, we must hurry to Nones, then I will take you to robing, then time in the garden, then dinner, it’s friday so it will be salt fish tonight. I hope it doesn’t have that odd cabbage again" 

“You get fish and cabbage? Together?”

i

_Sweet Maria, where had this child been living_ She glanced down at Cosette again "Come, we will be late”, she picked up her pace and Cosette trotted at her side, just on the decourous side of running. She would stay with the child through the robing and keep an eye on her untill she had settled. It would be too easy to dent her, squash her down, while she was resilient, she needed some kindness. 


End file.
